Coloured Figures Of The Birds Of The British Isles

London: R.H. Porter, 1897. Second edition. Hardcover. Three quarter brown morocco, marbled endpapers and matching marbled endpapers. 7 Vols. Very good. 25.5 x 18 cm. All plates printed recto or verso only. The first edition was originally issued in parts beginning in October 1885 and ran through January 1898; the second edition, issued in 36 parts, began in 1891. By issue 28, the two editions were appearing simultaneously. Most parts of the second edition are the same as the first, except parts 7-17, which were reprinted with some changes, including the plates for eight birds. The first edition was limited to 550 copies, the second to 450. Chromolithography was at the apex of its development when Thorburn received this, his first major, commission. While Thorburn's plates are printed in color, many of Keuleman's plates continued to be colored by hand. List of subscribers, photogravure portrait frontispiece, 421 chromolothographed or hand-coloured lithographed plates, mainly after Archibald Thorburn and J. G. Keulemans, COPENHAGEN./ANKER. 308. FINE BIRD BOOKS. 9. McGILL/WOOD. 436. MULLINS & SWANN 354. NISSEN IVB 563. Some scattered foxing, mostly marginal. Rubbing to extremities. Raised bands, spine panels lettered in gilt.